Circle of Three: Book 2: Merry Meet
by Brambleshadow of WindClan
Summary: by Isobel Bird. A book of spells brought Kate, Cooper, and Annie together. The three are compelled to learn more, and the door is opened with the stirring ritual of the Vernal Equinox.
1. Chapter 1

**All text (C) Isobel Bird, 2001. I own nothing and am posting this merely for those who want to read the series and cannot find them in print.**

 **WARNING: This series contains content concerning Wicca and witchcraft. If this offends you in any way, DO NOT READ.**

* * *

 **Circle of Three**

 **Book 2**

 _ **Merry Meet**_

* * *

 _Joined together, hand in hand, our circle gathers round  
_ _To work our magic, weave the web, and dance on sacred ground.  
_ _By the Goddess we are called, witch to witch and friend to friend,  
_ _To merry meet and merry part and merry meet again._

A book of spells brought Kate, Cooper, and Annie together. The three are compelled to learn more, and the door is opened with the stirring ritual of the Vernal Equinox.

* * *

 **CHAPTER 1**

"I can't believe we're finally here," said Kate Morgan, looking around the room and smiling at the handsome guy seated across from her. The table was in the corner, next to a window. Outside a fine, gray March mist floated across the pier on which the restaurant was built, but from time to time it parted and Kate could see the reflection of the moon on the ocean. The small candle on the table in front of her flickered cheerfully inside its glass holder and made her forget the chill that had wrapped around the town only a few days before the official start of spring.

"Hey, I told you—I always keep my promises," Scott Coogan said, his lips parting in the carefree smile that was one of the things Kate found so appealing about her boyfriend.

Her boyfriend. The very words sent a tingle of excitement flowing through her skin like electricity. As she looked into Scott's blue eyes, Kate couldn't believe that only six weeks earlier she and Scott had never even spoken to one another. _If it hadn't been for the spell I cast_ , she thought to herself.

The spell. Kate still felt terrible about the spell. When she had found the book of spells in among the other books she'd checked out of the library for her report on the witchcraft persecutions for history class, she'd thought it was all ridiculous. The rituals and chants were fun to read, but she didn't think they would really do anything.

Not until she tried one. The "Come to Me Love Spell" had seemed harmless when she'd read it in the book. It had even seemed harmless when she'd tried using it to get Scott to notice her. And when he _had_ noticed her, she was as surprised as anyone else. Surprised and happy. At least until all the bad things started happening afterward.

But she didn't want to think about that anymore. It had been awful. If it hadn't been for Cooper and Annie, she didn't know where she'd be right now. Probably still trying to figure out how to reverse the spell that had gone so out of control. If she could have done it at all.

In the end she and her friends had stopped the spell. And best of all, Scott was still with her even without the use of magic. Still, sometimes Kate found herself wondering if he _really_ liked her or if he was still a little bit enchanted by the ritual she'd performed using a doll that resembled him. She still wasn't entirely sure what she thought about magic and witchcraft, even though she'd seen for herself what it could do.

"What are you thinking about?" Scott's voice jerked Kate out of her daydream.

"Nothing," she said quickly. "Just about how nice it is to be here with you."

"I'm sorry it's taken so long," Scott said, picking a roll from the basket in front of him and spreading butter on it. "What with school and work, and your basketball games and this whole scouting thing, I didn't think we'd ever be free on the same night."

That was something else Kate didn't want to think about—the scouting thing. Scott, a senior, was the captain of the Beecher Falls High School football team. He was a great player, and several colleges had been interested in him because of his football skills. For the past month they'd been taking him on tours of various campuses and trying to get him to agree to come to their schools. At first it had just been one school, one not too far from Beecher Falls. But then three other schools had come calling—schools that were far away—and now Scott was trying to decide which one he wanted to go to.

Kate was trying to be supportive, but she was terrified that Scott was going to end up at at school somewhere across the country. She wished she were a senior too, instead of just a sophomore. Then maybe she and Scott could go to school together. But she wasn't, and as the end of the year came closer and closer, the more she found herself wondering what was going to happen to them after graduation.

"You're worrying about the school thing, aren't you?" Scott asked, chewing on the bread.

Kate nodded, trying not to look sad. She didn't want to ruin what was supposed to be their most romantic date yet—a belated Valentine's Day dinner. They'd had to skip the real thing because Scott had gone on the first of his school visits that weekend. He'd promised to take her out later, and now they were sitting across from one another at a great restaurant and Kate was holding the beautiful red rose Scott had presented her with when he'd picked her up.

"I told you before," Scott said, taking her other hand in his. "It doesn't matter where I go. Whether it's here or somewhere else, we'll still be together."

"I know," Kate said. "It just seems like the year is flying by too quickly. I wish we had more time."

"We have all the time in the world," Scott said as the waitress arrived with their food and Kate was forced to let go of his hand.

They ate happily, each taking bites from the other's plate. Then, when they were finished, the waitress appeared with two bowls of chocolate mousse covered in whipped cream and strawberries.

"Be careful," she said as she set one of the bowls in front of Kate. "The chef put some of his secret ingredients in here tonight. Make sure you don't bite down too hard."

"What does she mean by that?" Kate asked as she dipped her spoon into the chocolate.

"Got me," Scott replied. "Maybe there are nuts in here or something."

Kate took a tentative bite of the mousse, savoring the sweetness. There didn't seem to be anything unusual in it, and she took another bite. Again there was nothing. But on her third bite she felt something hard beneath her tongue, something sharp and metallic. _That's no nut,_ she thought as she reached up and took whatever it was out of her mouth.

It was a ring. Kate held it in her hand, staring at it and wondering how it might have gotten into her mousse.

"Surprise!" Scott said, grinning.

Kate looked at him in confusion. "You knew about this?" she asked.

"How do you think it got in there?" Scott said, taking the ring from her and wiping it off with his napkin. 'Don't you recognize it?"

He handed the ring back to Kate and she looked at it. It was a silver ring with a small purple stone.

"It's the ring from the antiques store!" she said. A couple of weeks before, while she and Scott had been walking around town after seeing a movie, they had gone into a little antiques store to look around. Kate had seen the ring and commented on how pretty she thought it was.

"I went back and got it," Scott said. "I thought I should get you something. You know, to make up for missing the real Valentine's Day and all. Try it on."

Kate slipped the ring over her finger. "It's perfect," she said, holding her hand up so Scott could see.

"That seemed better than wearing my class ring with ten miles of yarn wrapped around it," Scott said. "Do you like it?"

"I love it," said Kate enthusiastically.

"Now you'll have something to remember me by when I'm—" Scott paused and looked down at his nearly empty dessert bowl.

The happiness inside Kate flowed out as quickly as it had come. "You _have_ decided where you're going, haven't you?" she said.

Scott sighed. "Not entirely," he answered. "But New York is looking better and better."

New York. Three thousand miles away. _He might as well be going to school on the moon_ , thought Kate. She looked at the beautiful ring on her finger and tried to will the sinking feeling in her stomach to go away.

"You're right," she said, trying to sound more hopeful than she felt. "It won't matter where you go. We'll still be together. And this _will_ always remind me of you. I can't wait to show it to the girls."

"You and your friends," Scott said, laughing. "I'm surprised I could get you away from them for the night."

"A girl's friends are very important," said Kate. "You're a boy. You wouldn't understand."

"Probably not," Scott admitted. "But can I have another half hour or so of your time before you check in?"

"I think I can manage that," Kate said. "Maybe I'll even let me take you home."

After the last of the dessert was gone and the bill was paid, Scott stood up and helped Kate on with her coat. They left the restaurant and walked down the pier to the parking area. Scott put his arm around Kate, holding her close as they walked, and she let herself enjoy the way their bodies moved so comfortably together, as if they'd been going out for much longer than just six weeks. It was amazing how much her life had changed in that time, and not just because of Scott.

But those things were far from her mind as they reached Scott's car and got inside. They made the drive home through the downtown area and past the campus of Jasper College, around which Kate's neighborhood was based, in silence, still holding hands. Kate tried not to think about the future. Scott was right; they still had three months of school left, and then the whole summer. That was a lot of time. _Besides,_ Kate thought, _a lot can happen in three months._

Scott pulled up in front of a house and stopped. "Here we are," he said. "Door-to-door service."

"It's just like having my own chauffeur," Kate said.

"Except most chauffeurs wouldn't do this," said Scott, leaning over and kissing her.

Kate felt as if she'd stopped breathing. When his lips touched hers, she didn't want him to ever pull away. It was as if they could stop time as long as their mouths didn't part and break the spell.

But eventually Scott did pull away. "I had a great time tonight," he said. "I hope it was worth the wait."

"It was most definitely worth the wait," said Kate. "This was the best Valentine's Day date I've ever had."

"I thought you told me it was the _only_ one you've ever had," Scott teased.

"It's still the best," said Kate, reaching into the backseat and pulling out a backpack. "Now I'd better get inside, or those girls are going to think we've gotten engaged."

Scott leaned over and kissed her again. "I'll call you tomorrow," he said. "Have fun tonight."

"I already have," Kate said, opening the door and getting out.

Kate walked to the front door of the house. She rang the bell, and almost immediately the door flew open and two expectant faces peered out at her.

"Well?" said Annie, pushing up her glasses in a familiar gesture. "What happened?"

"You're fifteen minutes late, young lady," Cooper added, her arms across her chest in mock annoyance.

"Sorry, moms," Kate said, pushing past her two friends and walking straight into the kitchen, where she knew there would be some hot chocolate waiting for her. Annie's rambling old house had become her second home, and Kate even had her own mug that she used whenever she came over.

"I can't believe you're not giving us the deets," Annie said plaintively, coming in right behind her.

"Deets?" said Kate, putting her backpack down and taking off her coat.

"You know, details," Annie explained.

"Since when did you get all streetwise?" Kate asked, pulling out a chair and sitting down at the kitchen table.

"She learned it from Meg," Cooper explained, sitting across from Kate.

Annie blushed. Meg was her nine-year-old sister. Where Annie was shy and reserved around other people, especially the other kids at school, Meg was a regular social butterfly, talking easily to anyone and everyone who would listen. Like Annie, she was always reading, but she'd learned to get along better in the larger world than her big sister had.

"Where is Meg, anyway?" Kate asked. Normally the little girl was at her side the minute she entered the house, anxious to tell Kate the plot of the latest book she was devouring.

"Aunt Sarah took her with her," Annie explained.

Sarah was Annie's aunt, and Annie and Meg had come to live with her after the death of their parents a number of years before. Kate still didn't know exactly what had happened to the Crandalls. Annie didn't like to talk about it, and although Kate had always wondered, she'd never felt comfortable asking. In many ways their friendship was still new, and although she, Cooper, and Annie had shared a lot, they all still had some secrets.

"Took her with her?" Kate asked, noticing a plate of chocolate chip cookies on the table and taking one.

"To visit a friend out of town," Annie said. "They'll be back on Sunday."

"You mean we have the house to ourselves?" Kate asked, giving her friends a wicked look. "In that case, I say an all-night pajama party is in order."

"First things first," said Cooper. "We have something to show you."

Kate looked from Cooper to Annie. Sometimes she couldn't believe the three of them were really friends. Kate was as outgoing as Annie was shy. And Cooper, with her ever-changing hair color (it had recently gone from bright pink to bright blue) and loner attitude, was the last person Kate would have ever thought she'd be spending a Friday night with. But that too, was before the whole spell thing. Now here she was, waiting for Cooper and Annie to spill the beans.

"While you were out with lover boy, Annie and I made a trip down to Crones' Circle," Cooper said, referring to the funky bookstore where the three of them had been spending a lot of time since their experience with the spell book the month before. The store specialized in books about Wicca and other esoteric topics, and they had learned a lot since first walking through the door in search of some much-needed help.

"And?" Kate said with exaggerated effect.

"And we found this," Cooper said, handing Kate a flyer printed on grass-green paper.

Kate took the flyer and looked at it, reading it out loud as she munched on a cookie. "'The Coven of the Green Wood invites you to a celebration of the Spring Equinox. Saturday, March 19. Ritual begins at five, with potluck after. Bring food to share.'"

"Doesn't it sound great?" Annie asked excitedly. "It's an open ritual. Anyone can go."

"Sophia said it would be okay if we came," Cooper added. Sophia was one of the women who owned Crones' Circle, and she had answered many of their questions about Wicca.

"I don't know," said Kate, staring at the flyer.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Cooper said irritably. "It's our first ritual."

"First one with real witches," Annie corrected.

Kate looked from one to the other. They both seemed so excited. She wished she was as sure as they seemed to be. Getting together with real witches made everything feel a lot more serious, at least to Kate, who still wasn't entirely sure what she thought about the whole subject of Wicca. She didn't know if she was ready for it.

"I'll think about it," she said, and her friends groaned. They knew that whenever Kate said she'd think about something it really meant she didn't want to do it but was afraid to hurt their feelings.

"Think fast," Cooper said. "It's tomorrow night."

"Tomorrow is tomorrow," Kate said, thinking about what Scott had said earlier in the evening. "We have lots of time. Now, don't you want to hear about this ring?"


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

"Not that one," Sherrie said the instant Jessica emerged from the dressing room smoothing the front of the blue flowered dress she'd gone in to try on. "You looked better in the green. Don't you guys agree?"

"Definitely," Tara responded. "The straps on that one make you look _way_ too Christina Aguilera."

Kate listened to her friends' banter as they thoroughly critiqued the dress. Sherrie, ever the boss, was making Jessica turn around so that she could see how the dress looked from all angles. Jessica, who was never exactly thrilled about trying on clothes, looked like a reluctant farm animal being judged at a state fair. A farm animal with gorgeous long blond hair and sparkling green eyes.

"Come on, you guys," she said. "It's just a cello recital. It's not like I'm going to the Oscars or something. Why can't I wear plain old black like everyone else does?"

"That's the point," Sherrie said, handing Jessica another dress and motioning her back into the changing room. "If everyone else is wearing it, you want to look different. Like Kate did at the Valentine's Day dance."

 _Leave it to Sherrie to bring that up,_ Kate thought. Sherrie, Jessica, and Tara were her oldest friends. Until recently, she would have said they were her best friends. But that was before Annie and Cooper had come into the picture. Now she wasn't always sure. Things had definitely changed after the Valentine's Day dance the month before, when Kate had shown up with Cooper and Annie, the three of them dressed like the fairy godmothers from the Disney version of _Sleeping Beauty._

Before the dance—and before stumbling upon the spell book—Kate had spent most of her time with Sherrie and the girls. They'd been best friends since second grade, doing practically everything together. Kate was on the basketball team with Jessica and Tara, and together with Sherrie the four of them were one of the more popular groups at Beecher Falls High School. But now things were changing. Kate was spending more time with Cooper and Annie. Her old friends, particularly Sherrie, couldn't understand why she would want to hang around with girls they considered, for various reasons, two of the least suitable friends Kate could have.

For their parts, Annie and Cooper viewed Sherrie, Tara, and Jessica with a mixture of envy (on Annie's part) and disdain (on Cooper's). They could understand why Kate might want to remain part of the popular crowd, but she knew they didn't entirely get it. And she couldn't explain it to them, the same way she couldn't explain to Sherrie and the others why she liked Annie and Cooper. Both groups played important parts in her life, and she couldn't give up one for the other. When she was with Cooper and Annie, talking about Wicca, she felt they shared a secret from everyone else. But when she was with Tara, Jessica, and Sherrie, she felt a part of things, like any high school girl with a great boyfriend and a fabulous social life. She didn't have to worry about magic and what getting involved with witchcraft meant or any of that.

Kate ignored Sherrie's comment, knowing that responding to it would just cause an argument. As it was, she had managed to negotiate an uneasy truce between her two sets of friends, carefully dividing her time between them. Later today she was supposed to go back to Annie's, although she still hadn't decided whether or not she was going to the Spring Equinox ritual Cooper and Annie had tried to talk her into.

She looked at her watch. It was two-thirty. She still had some time before she had to make a decision. She'd told Cooper and Annie that she'd return around four.

"That ring Scott gave you is so pretty," Tara cooed as they waited for Jessica to come out. "Let's see it again."

Kate held up her hand. That was another thing she liked about hanging with her old friends—she could talk about her relationship with Scott. They'd asked her to repeat the story about the ring several times, but Annie and Cooper had listened to it once, and then with only the barest hint of interest. Cooper, in fact, refused to even call Scott by name, referring to him as "the dumb jock" or "Lover Boy." Annie was more polite, but Kate knew that she couldn't really see the appeal of Scott either.

Tara, however, couldn't stop oohing and aahing over the ring. And although Sherrie pretended to not be that impressed, Kate knew that inside she was wishing that a guy would pay as much attention to her.

"What do you guys think?" Jessica asked, stepping out from behind the curtain in the dark red dress Sherrie had insisted she try on.

Kate, Sherrie, and Tara looked at one another. "That's the one," they said in unison.

Later, as Kate rode the bus back to her neighborhood, she thought about the Spring Equinox ritual. Did she want to go? Part of her did. But part of her was afraid. She had already taken some big steps away from the security of her old group of friends and the social world they moved in. It wasn't like she was being ostracized or anything, but she definitely felt that she didn't belong entirely to that world anymore. And despite promising Annie and Cooper that she would give it serious thought, she really hadn't decided how involved she wanted to be with Wicca. Reading about it was fine, and doing the occasional ritual with Cooper and Annie was fun too. But she certainly didn't consider herself a witch or anything.

The bus stopped at the corner of Annie's street and Kate got off. She hurried up the sidewalk. After shopping, she and her friends had stopped for pizza, and she had lost track of time. It was already after four and she knew that Annie and Cooper were going to be annoyed that she had kept them waiting.

But when she got to Annie's house she found a note taped to the front door.

 _Kate:_

 _We've gone to the Equinox gathering. We hope you come too. We've got everything you need. Just bring yourself!_

 _Annie and Cooper_

They'd written the address on the bottom of the note. Kate considered it. The house where the gathering was taking place wasn't far away. She could easily walk there and still be on time. But she could just as easily not go and blame her absence on her lateness. In fact, if she went home she might still be able to spend the evening with Scott.

She decided to start for home, and had taken a few steps down the sidewalk when she stopped and looked at the note in her hand. She knew Cooper and Annie would be disappointed. And what was the big deal about a little ritual? _It can't be that bad,_ she told herself as she switched directions and headed the other way.

The house where the Equinox ritual was being held was farther away than she'd thought, and Kate arrived at the door a few minutes before five. Part of her hoped that no one would answer the door when she knocked, giving her another excuse to go home, but a moment later the door swung open and a woman peered out at her.

"Hi," Kate said, feeling slightly foolish. "I'm here for the ritual. I'm supposed to meet my friends."

The woman smiled. "You must be Kate," she said. "Come in. We'd almost given up on you."

Kate entered the house, wondering how the woman knew her name. "I'm sorry I'm late," she said.

"Never mind," the woman said. "We're about to start. The others are in the garden. Follow me."

They walked through the house and into a large kitchen filled with delicious smells that came from the bowls and trays of food arranged on a big wooden table. _That must be for the potluck,_ Kate thought. _I wonder if Annie and Cooper brought anything._

The woman opened the door at the back of the kitchen, and Kate saw that behind the house there was a large garden area ringed by tall trees whose branches were covered in small, new leaves. An herb garden, its plants still dead from the cold of winter but with tiny, tentative, shoots poking out of the earth, took up one corner. The lawn was dotted with purple and white crocuses, and around edges clumps of snowdrops nodded their heads on delicate stems.

A group of about twenty people was gathered in the garden. Many of them wore long white robes. Others wore robes of different colors, and a few just had on their everyday clothes. Kate scanned the faces, looking for Annie and Cooper, and found them standing together walking to a small woman with short brown hair. Kate recognized her as Archer, one of the women who worked at Crones' Circle. Annie and Cooper were wearing the robes that Kate had made for their very first ritual together. Annie's was green, while Cooper's was purple.

"Did I miss anything?" Kate asked, walking up to the three of them.

"You made it!" said Annie, sounding pleased.

"Barely," said Kate. "And I didn't bring a robe or anything."

"We brought yours," Annie said. "I left it in the house."

Kate turned to go back inside to put on her robe, but Archer stopped her. "We're about to start," she said. "But don't worry. You don't really need a robe. They're just for fun anyway."

The various conversations that had been going on stopped as a woman dressed in a simple, flowing white dress and wearing a garland of violets and daffodils on her head stepped into the center of the garden.

"We're ready to begin," she said. "If everyone will form a circle, we can get started."

The group arranged itself into a circle. As people took their positions, Kate found that she was separated from Annie and Cooper by several people she didn't know. To her right was a man with a salt-and-pepper beard, and to her left was the woman who had opened the door for her. Kate looked to see where Cooper and Annie were and saw them about a quarter of the way around the circle. Annie was sandwiched between Archer and a woman with red hair, and Cooper was several people away. A woman who could have been Kate's grandmother was on one side of her, and on the other was a boy who looked about seventeen.

Kate was surprised to see the boy there. She had expected that she and Cooper and Annie would be the only teenagers at the ritual and, apart from him, it looked as though they were. He was dressed in jeans and a blue sweater. His black hair looked deliberately messy, with one lock of it dipping over his forehead. He was thin, with pale skin and an intelligent face. Cooper, Kate observed, didn't even seem to notice him standing beside her.

The woman in the center of the circle was looking around at all of them. "Welcome to the Spring Equinox ritual," she said. "My name is Rowan, and I'm part of the Coven of the Green Wood. Some of you I've seen before, and some of you are new faces. For those of you who haven't been to one of our open rituals before, let me explain a few things. We hold open rituals four times a year—on the Winter and Summer Solstices, and on the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes. We are a coven of witches working in an eclectic style, which means we don't follow any one way of performing rituals. These are times for us to experiment with new ways of celebrating. Our rituals involve singing, chanting, dancing, and especially eating."

Everyone laughed when Rowan mentioned eating, and suddenly Kate felt a lot of the tension flow out of her. She'd been expecting the ritual to be a solemn, maybe even overwhelming, affair, and she'd been afraid that she wouldn't know what to do or say. But Rowan seemed very easygoing. Maybe it would be fun after all.

"In case you don't know what the Spring Equinox is," Rowan continued, "it's the day of the year when light and dark are in perfect balance. It also goes by the name Eostre, which most of you will probably recognize as sounding a awful lot like Easter. That's because the holiday was a celebration of the pagan fertility goddess Eostre. In those ancient days that so many pagans and witches are fond of talking about, Eostre was a time for celebrating the beginning of the planting season and a time for asking the earth goddess to bless the fields and make them abundant. Now that we buy most of our food down at Stop and Shop, we don't really need to do that. But those of us who follow the old religion still like to celebrate this day as a time of new beginnings. After the cold of winter, we all look forward to the warmth of summer, and we figure the earth can always use a little waking up after her long nap. So that's what today is about—new beginnings. Now, let's get started. Don't worry—if you don't know what to do, just watch. You'll figure it out soon enough."

Rowan took her place in the circle. She nodded to a man who had a small drum slung over his shoulder, and he began to play a steady beat on it. As he did, the people on either side of Kate took hold of her hands, and she felt them start moving to the left. She moved with them, her feet crossing over each other as the circle turned, everyone walking in time with the drumming. When the circle reached a certain point, it stopped and a woman stepped forward, holding up her hands to the sky.

"East," she said in a clear, strong voice. "Place of air. The spring breeze that whispers to the flowers and shakes them with its laughter. Welcome to our circle."

"Welcome!" came the answering cry of the others in the circle.

Kate knew that the woman was calling the directions. It was how most Wiccan rituals began, with the casing of the magic circle. The woman used words different from those Kate used when she, Annie, and Cooper did their rituals, but Kate knew that there were many different ways of casting a circle. She listened with interest as the ritual continued. They joined hands and moved a little farther around the circle. Each time they stopped, someone else stepped forward and called to a direction, just as the first woman had.

"South, place of fire," said the woman who had let Kate into the house. "Bright rays of sun that warm the earth and wake her from her sleep. Welcome to our circle."

As she always did during the calling of the directions, Kate tried to feel each one as it was invoked. She concentrated on the way the air moved around her and how the sun felt where it warmed her skin. When she did rituals inside, she often visualized herself in nature. But outside, she really felt connected to the elements. They were all around her, and as they were called, she imagined them answering, coming closer and joining the people in the circle.

"West, place of water," said the bearded man beside Kate when they stopped for the third time. "Ancient ocean and spring rain. Ever-frozen iceberg and gently rushing stream. Welcome to our circle."

At the final stop, Kate was surprised to see the young man across from her step forward. "North," he said, his voice soft and pleasant. "Place of earth. Dry desert and fertile seed bed. Tall mountain and tiny pebble. Welcome to our circle."

"Welcome," said Kate along with the others as the boy stepped back into the circle. Kate looked at him, and saw that he was looking back. Even from across the garden she could see that his eyes were a warm golden color, like the sun on autumn leaves. The boy smiled, then looked away.

Rowan stepped once more into the center of the circle. Holding up her hands, she chanted, "By the earth and by the fire, by the water and the air. Cast we now this magic circle. Joy to all who enter here. The circle is cast. We are now in sacred space. Let us—"

:"Wait!" a voice cried, interrupting Rowan's next statement. Everyone turned to look, and Kate saw a girl standing in the doorway of the kitchen. About Kate's age, she was very thin, with long black hair that she tucked behind her ears as they stared at her.

"Hi," she said timidly. "Am I late?"

The girl was wearing a dark blue robe that was too big for her. It pooled at her feet, and she kept pushing the sleeves up so that they didn't cover her hands.

 _I wonder why she got one so big?_ Kate thought to herself. Then she looked harder at the robe. _And why does it look just like mine?_


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3**

The girl stepped into the yard and wedged herself between two of the people closest to the kitchen door, who moved over to let her in. When the circle was re-formed, Rowan continued.

"We are now in sacred space," she repeated. "Let us begin. Would you all be seated."

Everybody sat on the ground, which, thanks to the afternoon sun, was dry. Kate had no idea what was going to happen next. She was still a little distracted, both by the fact that the boy with the golden eyes had smiled at her and by wondering why the girl who had come so late was wearing what seemed to be _her_ robe. She tried to push both thoughts to the back of her mind and concentrate on what was happening.

Rowan seated herself in the center of the circle. The man with the drum sat beside her.

"I'm going to ask all of you to close your eyes," Rowan said. "We're going to do a guided meditation. Keep your eyes closed until I tell you to open them."

Kate closed her eyes and listened as Rowan began the meditation.

"Picture yourself in a small boat," Rowan began. "You're riding down a swift-moving river. You don't know where you're going, but the boat weaves its way easily among the rocks and rapids."

Rowan's voice was soothing, and Kate felt herself relaxing as she imagined herself in a little boat with a small white sail, speeding along a river in the spring sunshine. She wondered where the boat might take her, and listened for Rowan's next suggestion.

"You come to a turn in the river," Rowan continued. "All of a sudden the river opens up into a wide lake. And in the center of the lake is a small island rising up from the water, which is still and clear. The boat is still moving, and it takes you to the shore of the island. When you reach it you climb out and walk onto the grassy bank."

Kate could feel the rocking of the boat as she stepped out of it and put her bare foot on the warm grass of the island. She was filled with a sense of adventure, not knowing where she was or what she would find there. A small breeze blew through the garden, caressing her skin, and she smelled the scent of grass and earth around her.

"Ahead of you is a path," said Rowan. "As you look at it, you hear the sound of drumming."

There was a soft thud as the man beside Rowan began to drum, his hands beating a slow and steady rhythm.

"Listen to the drum," Rowan instructed. "Follow its sound as you begin to walk the path. Let the sound of the drum guide you. The path winds around the island, taking you all along its edge. Then it begins to spiral in, making smaller and smaller circles."

Rowan continued to talk as the man drummed, and Kate let the images Rowan described come to life in her imagination. In her mind she circled the island path, the sand warm beneath er feet as she wound her way through tall grasses and swaying wildflowers, following the quiet voice of the drum as it urged her forward. She felt herself becoming more and more relaxed as the sound filled her head like a heartbeat.

When Kate had circled the island several times, the path reached the center, and Rowan told them that they were standing in the middle of a small clearing. Suddenly, the drumming stopped.

"The goddess of spring, Gaia, has come here today to welcome back her child, the sun," Rowan said. "He is growing bigger and brighter, and today he begins his journey through the sky to help make the crops grow strong. The goddess needs our help to welcome him, and she asks that we dance and sing with her to celebrate the beginning of his journey. You will hear the drum begin again. Follow its sound as you walk the path back to the shore. When you reach the entrance to the path, open your eyes. You will still be on the island, and it will be time to begin the celebration."

Kate turned and followed the spiral path back around the island, listening to he beating of the drum. When she reached the shore, she opened her eyes and looked around. She was almost surprised to find herself seated in the garden of the house, surrounded by other people. She half expected to see Gaia sitting in the center of the circle. And when she saw that there _was_ someone seated there, she was startled.

Rowan was gone. In her place was a woman wearing a green robe, and on her head was a garland of flowers. She looked around at the people circled about her, smiling at each of them.

"Welcome," she said. "I am the goddess Gaia. I welcome you here now, and ask you to join me as we sing to my child, the sun."

The woman stood, and the others did likewise. She walked to a man standing near her and took his hand. "We are going to do a spiral dance," she said. "Just as you walked the spiral path of my island, now we will dance the path together. I will lead, and all you need do is follow."

The man with the drum started to play again, this time tapping out a livelier beat. The woman dressed as the goddess began to walk clockwise around the circle. As the man whose hand she held followed, he took up the person beside him. Each person in turn took the hand of her or his neighbor, forming a chain that followed the goddess as she went around the garden. As the circle turned, the woman began to sing.

"Welcome, spring, the child of sunfire. Give to us the gift of light. As you travel through the heavens, may the days grow long and bright."

The group took up the song, their voices filling the garden. Kate listened several times to the words, then joined in. The chant sounded almost like a nursery rhyme, like something children would sing on a playground. As Kate sang it, she could easily imagine the sun as a shining little boy running through the spring flowers, laughing and playing.

When the person next to her grabbed her hand, she became part of the line of people as it passed by, and found herself walking in a circle. The woman leading the dance had gone all around the garden, and when she came to the point where she had begun she moved closer to the center of the circle. Now the people at the front of the line began to pass by the people at the end, and Kate understood why it was called a spiral dance.

Kate found herself looking into the faces of those going by her as she made the first circle around the garden. At first she was a little embarrassed to have people seeing her singing, but soon she was enjoying looking at the different faces as they went by. She hadn't really had a chance to see everyone because she'd come late, but now she got to see who else had come for the ritual. There were all kinds of faces—old ones and young ones, men and women, people with long hair and some with none at all. When Annie, and then Cooper, passed by her, she gave them big smiles.

The spiral was growing tighter as the leader turned and then turned again, pulling the rings of people closer together. Kate wondered what would happen when she reached the center and couldn't go anywhere else. She tried to concentrate on the words of the chant they were singing, letting the hands of either side of her lead her.

Then she turned, spiraling in once more, and found herself looking into the face of the boy with the golden eyes. As he passed her, she heard him singing. His voice was rich and steady, and she was sorry when he moved past and she couldn't hear him anymore. Especially when she found her ears filled with a loud, off-key voice.

It was the girl in the blue robe. She was passing Kate, and she was singing very loudly and very badly. As she went by, Kate got a closer look at her robe, which kept getting tangled in her feet and was becoming covered with grass stains.

 _That_ is _my robe!_ Kate thought angrily. The realization made her lose her place in the chant, and it took er a minute to pick it up again. But by that time the words had changed. They were singing something else.

"Green leaf, blue sky," sang some of the people.

"Warm sun, cool rains," sang others.

The two sets of words, both sung at once, created a beautiful blending of voices. Kate felt surrounded by a web of words that held her up as she spiraled closer and closer to the center. She watched the woman dressed as the goddess near the very middle of the garden, where she expected her to stop. Instead, as she reached the center she turned, moving counterclockwise past the person behind her and spiraling back out again.

The dance swirled one way and then another. Kate lost herself in the continually changing sea of faces and sounds. Sometimes she saw a face she recognized for a moment. She knew that she had passed Annie, Cooper, and the golden-eyed boy several times. Kate felt as if a thin ribbon of golden light flowed through the fingers of everyone in the chain, holding them together. She'd felt it once before during a ritual with Annie and Cooper, but not as strongly as she did now.

Then, almost without her realizing it, the spiral unwound and the circle was back in its original form. Everyone still held hands, and Kate looked around the circle at the faces bright with the glow of dancing.

"Move to the center and bring your hands together," the woman portraying the goddess said.

Everyone moved forward, lifting their hands into the air until they were pressed into a tight bunch.

"Release your hands and send the energy we've raised into the sky," the goddess told them.

Dozens of fingers waved in the afternoon light as the people around Kate reached for the sun.

"And now return to the circle," said the goddess.

They moved back to their original positions and sat down once more. Kate felt incredibly alive and happy. The woman playing the goddess stood in the circle, holding a big basket.

"You've helped me to welcome the sun," she said. "And now I would like to give you a gift. Long ago on this day, people dyed eggs red to symbolize the sun. The egg is a symbol of life and of creation. To help you remember what you've done here, I would like to give you each an egg. Place it on your personal altar, or wherever you can see it every day. When you look at it, remember that within each of you there is a creative force. As the season grows brighter, let that creativity within you grow into something special."

The woman walked around the circle, handing each person an egg. When Kate received hers, she was surprised at how light it was. Then she realized that probably the insides had been blown out so that the eggs wouldn't spoil. She looked at her egg. It was dyed bright red and painted with yellow and orange spirals.

When everyone had an egg, Rowan stepped into the circle once more and announced that it was time to thank the directions. Moving backward, from north to east, they said farewell to the directions and the elements they represented.

"And now let's finish with the traditional witches' farewell," Rowan concluded, and those who knew it joined her in saying, "The circle is open, but unbroken. Merry meet, and merry part, and merry meet again."

Having finished the ritual, people moved back into the house, where the food was waiting. Kate joined Cooper and Annie, and as they went into the house, the girls were joined by Sophia, their friend from the bookstore.

"So, what did you think?" she asked.

"Very cool," Cooper said.

"Yeah," said Kate. "Thanks for inviting us."

"I thought you might like it," Sophia responded. "You might also like the class that Rowan and some of the other coven members are going to be teaching at the store."

"Class?" said Annie.

Sophia nodded. "An intro to witchcraft class. It's short—only three weeks. The idea is to talk about the basic beliefs of witchcraft and what it means to be Wiccan. I know you guys have been doing some studying on your own, but this might be a good way for you to meet other people in the community."

"When is it?" asked Annie.

"Tuesday nights," Sophia answered. "From six to eight. Think you can make it?"

"I can," Annie said.

"Me too," added Cooper. "What about you, Kate? Do you have basketball practice or anything?"

"The season is just about over," Kate said. "I could go."

"Great," said Sophia. "I'll tell Rowan."

"Can anyone come?" someone asked, interrupting them. The girl in the blue robe was standing beside them. "I couldn't help but overhear," she said. "So, can anyone come to the class?"

"Well, we generally don't let anyone under sixteen join," Sophia said kindly. "But Annie, Cooper, and Kate have been doing a lot of reading on their own."

"I know a lot about Wicca," the girl said. "I've been into it since I was twelve. And I'll be sixteen in a couple months anyway."

Sophia laughed. "I n that case, I guess I have to say yes, don't I?" she said. "Okay, you can come. What's your name?"

"Sasha," the girl said. "My family just moved her, and I've really been wanting to find some other pagans to hang out with."

"Well, you should start with these three," Sophia said. "They can tell you where the store is. And now I'm going to try to snag some of the lemon squares over on the table before the goddess of spring eats them all."

Sophia left the girls standing with Sasha.

"This is so cool," Sasha said. "I had no idea there were so many witches in Beecher Falls. Are you guys a coven, or what?"

"Not exactly," Cooper said. "So, you just moved here?"

"Yeah," said Sasha. "My dad's in software development. We just moved here from L.A."

"Will you be going to Beecher Falls High?" asked Annie.

"I guess," Sasha said. :I mean, yeah. That sounds like the school my mom mentioned."

"If you don't mind my asking," said Kate. "Where'd you get the robe?"

"This?" said Sasha. "I found it on a chair in the kitchen when I came in. I didn't think anyone would mind. Do you like it?"

"I should," Kate answered. "I made it."

Sasha turned red and began to take off the robe. "I'm really sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to—"

"It's okay," Kate relented. "You can keep it. It looks good on you."

Sasha grinned. "Thanks," she said. "Man, I'm so happy to meet you guys. I didn't think I'd meet any cool people here. Hey—do you guys want something to eat? I'm starved."

The four of them headed for the food table. As Kate perused the bowls of potato salad and the various steaming vegetable and tuna casseroles, she watched Sasha. She was piling food onto her plate as fast as she could. _She eats a lot for such a skinny thing,_ Kate thought. She didn't know why she'd told Sasha that she could keep the robe. It had just come out. Something about Sasha made Kate want to be nice to her.

Kate was reaching for the spoon to take some pasta salad when someone else reached for it and bumped her hand.

"Sorry," she said.

"You first," said a guy's voice.

Kate looked over and saw the boy with the golden eyes standing beside her.

"Hi," he said. "I'm Tyler."

"I'm Kate," she said. Then she could think of anything else to say, so she just stood there, feeling stupid.

"Are you guys going to hog that salad all night?" someone said, pushing between them. It was Sasha.

Kate looked across Sasha at Tyler and shrugged her shoulders. Before she could say anything, a young woman came up and tapped him on the shoulder.

"We've got to go," she said. "The concert starts in half an hour."

Tyler put down his plate, waved at Kate, and followed the woman to the door. As he walked away, Kate found herself with all kinds of questions. Who exactly was Tyler? Why was he at the ritual? Was the woman his girlfriend? Why did she care anyway? She had a great boyfriend. She was even wearing the ring he gave her.

Still, as she spooned pasta salad onto her plate, she couldn't stop thinking about the boy with the golden eyes.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4**

On Monday morning Kate walked into Beecher Falls High School feeling better than she could remember feeling on the first day of a new week. She didn't have any tests, she'd finished her homework and her essay for English, and best of all, her boyfriend was waiting for her at her locker.

"Hi there," he said, giving her a kiss. "I missed you."

"It's only been twelve hours," Kate teased.

After spending Saturday night at Annie's again, she'd gone home the next day for her usual routine of church and Sunday dinner with her family. Then it had been time for homework, followed by an early move with Scott. All in all, it had been a fantastic weekend.

"Well, I missed you anyway," he said as Kate put her coat away and grabbed the books for her morning classes.

Scott took her hand and began walking Kate to the chemistry lab where she had her first period class. As they rounded the corner, Kate nearly ran into Sasha, who was coming the other way.

"Hey there!" Sasha said brightly. "Just the person I was looking for."

Scott looked at Sasha, who was dressed in old jeans, a faded flannel shirt, and a jacket that was too big for her. "Who's your new friend?" he asked. Kate could tell by his tone that he wasn't sure what to make of the girl standing in front of them.

"Oh, um, this is Sasha," Kate explained. "She just moved here with her family."

"Dad's in software development," Sasha said to Scott, then she turned her attention to Kate again. "So, you going to show the new girl around on her first day?"

"Sure," Kate said, trying to sound friendly. The truth was, she'd forgotten all about Sasha's starting classes at Beecher. Besides, the school office usually assigned someone to show new students around, and she really didn't want to be saddled with Sasha for the day. But she also knew that it must be hard being the new girl in school, and she didn't want Sasha to feel all alone.

"I'll leave you two to get to it, then," Scott said. He leaned over and gave Kate a quick kiss. "See you later."

As Scott walked away down the hall, Sasha watched him go. "What a hottie," she said to Kate. "Have you two been going out long?"

"About six weeks," Kate said.

Sasha nodded knowingly. "Still in the honeymoon period," she said. "I give it another month before he's driving you crazy."

"Do you have a boyfriend?" Kate asked.

"Oh, yeah," Sasha replied. "Back in LA. He's great—a drummer in this ska band. They're really good. They even opened for No Doubt once. This is his jacket I'm wearing. See, it has his name on it."

Kate looked at the jacket. "Jack" was stitched in red thread over the pocket, and there was a grease stain beneath it.

"He works in a garage when he's not playing," Sasha explained, seeing Kate looking at the stain.

"You must miss him," said Kate, thinking of Scott and where he might be in six months.

Sasha shrugged. "If you really love someone, it doesn't matter where he is, right?"

Kate thought about it for a moment. "I guess not," she said. "But I'd rather not have to find out. What's your first class?"

"I think they told me I'm in the same class you're in," Sasha said.

"Chemistry," Kate said.

"Sounds like a drag to me," replied Sasha.

"It's okay," Kate said. "And Annie's in it, too. She's a lot more into it than I am, though."

"Then I guess she's the one to ask for homework advice," said Sasha. "You're the boyfriend expert and she's the brain. Got it."

Kate laughed in spite of herself. Sasha had a good sense of humor, and although she was a little rough around the edges, Kate liked her spirit. _Maybe she'll turn out to be okay,_ Kate thought as they went into the chemistry class.

It turned out that Sasha and Kate had several classes together. Sasha appeared in Kate's fourth period English class as well, where she ended up sitting in the seat behind Kate. They were studying American writers, and when Mrs. Milder asked Sasha to name her favorite, she said it was a toss-up between Stephen King and John Grisham. Her answer brought a laugh from the class, but the teacher didn't seem impressed and suggested that Sasha look over the reading list and pick something a little more literary to do her semester paper on.

"I can't believe she doesn't think Stephen King is great literature," Sasha said as she and Kate walked to the cafeteria for lunch after class. "Hasn't she ever read _The Shining_?"

"I think _The Scarlet Letter_ is more her thing," Kate suggested as she looked to see who else was in the cafeteria. She spotted Jessica, Tara, and Sherrie at their usual table, and waved.

"Are those your friends?" Sasha asked.

Kate nodded. "One set of them," she said. "It's a little complicated."

"Let's sit with them," Sasha suggested. "They look cool."

Kate hesitated. She knew Sasha wasn't exactly the kind of girl Sherrie considered worthy of hanging out with. Kate already got enough grief from her for being friends with Annie and Cooper. Adding Sasha to the list might be the last straw. But she also had a feeling Sasha could hold her own when she needed to, and she'd learned a lot about standing up to Sherrie in the past month, so she walked over to the table and sat down.

"Hey, guys," she said. "This is Sasha. She's new in school, and I'm showing her around."

Almost immediately, Sherrie started in. "You're new?" she said, as if she couldn't believe that someone was walking around school without her knowing it.

"We just moved here," Sasha explained.

"From LA," added Kate, knowing that Sherrie would think a newcomer from Los Angeles was something to get excited about.

"Where are you living now?" Sherrie continued, pretending not to be impressed.

"We haven't found a place yet," Sasha answered. "My mother is really fussy about houses. We're staying with some friends until she finds exactly the right thing."

"Aren't you eating?" Jessica asked Sasha, noticing that the other girl didn't have a lunch with her.

"Nah," Sasha explained. "I'm on a diet. I want to lose five pounds before swimsuit season."

"Oh, you should try one of these, then," Jessica said, pointing to the pile of potato chips she'd spread out on her napkin. "Totally fat-free. I'm sure they're made out of chemicals that would pickle lab rats, but who cares? They taste great."

"Thanks," said Sasha, taking a handful of chips and eating them eagerly.

Sherrie took a bite of the fruit salad on her tray. "Who wants to hear the latest gossip?" she asked coyly.

"Like you have to ask?" Tara retorted.

"Sherrie is the complete source for all news at Beecher Falls High School," Kate explained to Sasha. "She knows what's happening before it even happens."

"This time I might," Sherrie said smugly. "Word is that Mark Davis is going to dump Kathy Lewis."

"No way!" said Tara, the cupcake in her hand frozen on its way to her mouth.

"But why?" asked Kate, interested despite herself. "They've been going out since forever."

"Apparently, Mark found a love note that Kathy wrote to someone else," Sherrie said.

"Who?" asked Jessica, wide-eyed.

"That part I don't know," Sherrie admitted. "Yet. But give me a couple of hours."

"Wow," said Sasha. "You really do know it all. I could have used you last night. I was trying to get the story on this guy I met. A real cutie. But he was with this girl, and I couldn't figure out whether they were together or what. You saw him, Kate. That guy with the far-out eyes."

"Kate saw him?" Sherrie said.

"Yeah," Sasha answered. "We were both at this rit—"

"At this party," Kate said, suddenly interrupting. "Sasha and I were at the same party. That's how we met."

"You didn't tell us about a party," Tara said accusingly.

"It was probably something her _other_ friends were involved in," said Sherrie.

"You mean Annie and Cooper?" Sasha said. "Oh, yeah, they were there too. It was great."

"I'm sure it was," said Sherrie, staring hard at Kate.

"It was no big deal," Kate said hurriedly. "Just this little thing that Annie's aunt threw together.

"Whatever," said Sherrie. "So, Sasha, tell us about this guy."

Sasha started describing Tyler to the other girls, starting with his black hair and moving on to his clothes and even his shoes. As she talked, Kate tried to think. It hadn't occurred to her that Sasha might say anything about the ritual. So far Kate had managed to keep all of her Wiccan activities away from the prying eyes of her friends. She would have to make sure that Sasha knew the topic was off-limits before she said something that got Kate into trouble.

Part of Kate was also jealous that Sasha had noticed Tyler too. She'd been careful not to mention him, even to Annie and Cooper. They were always giving her a hard time about Scott, and she didn't want them to think she was totally boy crazy. Besides, it wasn't like she wanted to go out with the guy or anything. She just thought he was cute. Clearly, so did Sasha.

"Oh, and he had the best smile," she was saying when Kate returned to the conversation.

"Sounds dreamy," Tara said. "Unlike the trolls who go to this school."

"I don't know," Sasha said. "I think Kate's man is pretty studly."

"Yes, our little Kate managed to land quite a fine one," Jessica said. "We're very proud of her."

"We still don't know quite how she did it," Sherrie said, never content to let anyone else get the attention.

"Maybe she cast a spell on him," Sasha suggested, helping herself to more of Jessica's potato chips.

"Didn't you want me to show you the library?" Kate said to Sasha, trying to create a diversion. She didn't want Sasha to mention spells or rituals or witchcraft in any form before she could talk to her.

Sasha looked confused. "I don't think—" she began. Then she saw the intense look on Kate's face. "Oh, right. Do you want to do that now?"

"I think it would be a good idea," Kate said, getting up. "We have a few minutes before the next class."

Sasha stood to follow Kate. "It was nice meeting you guys," she said. "I guess I'll see you around."

The others said good-bye, and Kate and Sasha walked out of the cafeteria. As soon as they were in the hallway, Kate started talking.

"It might be better if you didn't mention anything to Sherrie, Tara, and Jessica about the party we went to last night," she said.

"You mean the ritual?" said Sasha.

Kate looked around, making sure that no one had heard her. "Yes," she said. "That. They don't know anything about that kind of thing. Most important, they don't know that _I_ know anything about it."

"Got it," said Sasha. "You're still in the broom closet."

"What?" said Kate.

"The broom closet," Sasha repeated. "You haven't told anyone that you're a—you know—a witch." She whispered the last word, then laughed.

"But I'm not," said Kate.

Sasha stopped and looked at her in surprise. "You mean you just happen to go to Wiccan rituals and hang out with witches?" she said.

Kate sighed. "It's a long story," she said.

"I have time," Sasha responded.

"Not here," said Kate. "Come on."

She led Sasha down the hall and opened the door that led to the school basement. The practice rooms for the music students were down there, and Kate knew that it would be quiet. She found an empty room and drew Sasha inside, shutting the door behind them.

"Here's the deal," she said. "About six weeks ago I found this book of spells in the library. I didn't know what it was. Just for fun, I tried one. It worked a little too well, and I needed some help stopping it. That's where Annie and Cooper came in. They had checked the book out, too, so I asked them to work with me to reverse my spell. We managed to do it, but it was really rough for a while. After it was all over, we agreed to keep studying witchcraft."

"I get it," said Sasha. "And you were at the ritual because you read about it somewhere."

"Right," said Kate. "Annie and Cooper got a flyer at Crones' Circle."

"Now it makes sense," Sasha said. "I thought the three of you were some kind of coven or something."

"Hardly," Kate said. "The spells we've done haven't exactly been great successes. Scott's the only good thing that came from any of it."

"So you _did_ cast a spell on him!" Sasha crowed in delight.

"At first I did," Kate admitted. "But he stuck around even when it was over, so there had to have been more to it than that. At least I hope there was."

"Who cares?" said Sasha. "The point is, you got what you wanted, right? That's what this stuff is all about."

Kate wasn't sure she agreed with Sasha, but she didn't say anything. It wasn't the time to get into a philosophical discussion about magic.

"We don't talk about Wicca at school," she said, trying to get to the main point of the conversation. "I don't think people here really get it, and we don't want to get into any trouble."

"That's cool," Sasha said. "No witch talk in front of the other kiddies. But you've got to do me a favor in return."

"What's that?" Kate asked.

"Tell me about that boyfriend spell," Sasha said. "It sounds like a doozy."

Kate laughed. "Later," she said. "Right now we have to get to class. Do you know where you're going?"

"Yeah, I think I've got it down now," Sasha said, hoisting her bag over her shoulder. As she did, Kate realized that Sasha had been carrying the same bag around all day. She also still had on her coat.

"Don't you want to put any of that in your locker?" she asked. "It looks really heavy, and you must be really hot in that coat."

"It's okay," Sasha said. "I like keeping it all with me. You never know what you might need."

They left the practice room and walked back upstairs, parting at a corner win the corridor as Kate headed for her history class.

"Let me know if you want to walk home after school," Kate said. "Which direction do you go?"

"Don't worry about it," Sasha said. "I'm meeting my mom for some shopping. I'll catch you later."

"Okay," Kate said, turning and walking to class. She was glad that Sasha was turning out to be pretty nice after all. _It just goes to show,_ she thought to herself, _you can't always judge people on first impressions._


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 5**

The back room at Crones' Circle was filled with people on Tuesday night. Some were sitting on the old purple velvet sofa. Some were seated in folding chairs. Still others were sitting cross-legged on cushions that Archer was dragging out of a storage room.

"I didn't know there would be so many people here," Annie said to Kate as they walked in.

"Hey, guys," Archer said, noticing them standing in the doorway. Grab some cushions and join the fun."

"Thanks," Kate said as Archer gave her a hug. She was particularly fond of the wiry, talkative woman with the quick wit. Archer had given Kate some good advice, along with a surprisingly accurate Tarot card reading, when Kate was trying to figure out what to do about her friendship with Annie and Cooper.

"Are you teaching the class?" Cooper asked, taking a cushion and finding an open spot on the floor.

"No," said Archer. "Rowan, from the Coven of the Green Wood, is doing this one. We just provide the space."

Archer went to greet some other people, and Kate, Cooper, Annie, and Sasha sat down. Almost immediately, a fat gray cat padded over and jumped into Cooper's lap.

"Simeon," Cooper said, scratching the cat behind the ears as it started to purr and knead her with its paws. "Nice to see you."

"This place is great," Sasha said, looking around. "It's even got its own cat."

Kate looked around the room to see who else had come for the first class. She was a little worried that she might see someone who knew her or knew her family, and she'd already worked out a story to tell anyone who might wonder what she was doing there. She was going to say that she was doing research for a school project. She'd told her parents that she was going to a study group for chem class. Having to make up stories bothered her, but she knew she couldn't tell them where she was really going.

But she didn't recognize any of the dozen or so people who crowded into the small room. Most of them seemed to be students from Jasper College, judging by the sweatshirts they wore and the backpacks they carried with the college logo on them. There was one woman who had to be at least seventy, and there were a couple of men sitting together on the couch. Kate breathed a sigh of relief that no one looked familiar to her.

A woman came into the room and walked to the front. It took Kate a moment to realize that it was Rowan. She was dressed in jeans and a black turtleneck, and without the white robe and garland of flowers Kate almost didn't recognize her.

"Good evening," she said, and the various conversations in the room stopped. "Welcome to the first class in our Exploring Witchcraft series. My name is Rowan, and I'll be one of the people leading the discussions. Some of you I've seen before, and some of you are new faces. I hope that by the end of the class I'll know all of you a little better. Now, just to get an idea of where people are, can I get a show of hands from people who have any experience practicing witchcraft."

About half the class raised their hands, including Annie, Cooper, and Sasha. Kate hesitated for a moment, then raised hers as well. Outside of rituals and talking to Archer, Sophia, and the other women at the bookstore, she'd never publicly associated herself with Wicca. She felt a little thrill of excitement as she saw that the people who weren't raising their hands were looking at her and the others curiously.

"Good," said Rowan. "That gives me a better idea of where to begin. Now, before we start, I want to explain how the course works. We'll have three classes. On the fourth Tuesday, we'll be performing a dedication ritual. Those of you who would like to dedicate yourselves to studying Wicca more seriously can participate."

"You mean we'd become witches?" Sasha asked.

"No," Rowan explained. "It takes a little more than three or four weeks of studying before you know enough to decide whether or not you want to devote yourself to a life in witchcraft. This is simply a dedication ceremony. You would agree to spend a year and a day living a Wiccan life and studying the Craft in greater detail. We'll actually be holding weekly meetings for those who are interested. At the end of that year and a day, you could decide to become witches if you wanted to."

"What if we don't want to take part in the ceremony?" asked a woman sitting to Kate's left. "Should we not take the class?"

"Oh, no," said Rowan. "Anyone can take the class. If you don't want to be part of the dedication ritual, that's fine. It's just an option for those who want to."

The woman nodded. Rowan waited to see if anyone else had questions. When no one spoke, she continued.

"Tonight we're going to talk about what witchcraft is and isn't," she said. "Why don't we start with the word _witch_ itself. Does anyone know what it means?"

"Doesn't it mean a wise person?" asked one of the men on the couch.

Rowan nodded. "That's one of the meanings. There are several origins for the word. One is from the Old English word _wicca_ or _wicce_ , which referred to men or women who practiced divination and had other skills thought to be somehow supernatural. There's also the word _witta_ , which meant a sage or an adviser. The word _witch_ probably has its beginnings in those words."

"What about warlocks?" someone asked Rowan. "Isn't that what male witches are called?"

Rowan smiled. "A lot of people think that," she said. "But male witches are witches, just like female ones are. The word _warlock_ actually means 'traitor' or 'one who breaks an oath.' The term was applied derogatorily to men accused of witchcraft because people said that they had turned away from God. But real witches never use that term."

There was something Kate had been confused about ever since doing her school paper on witchcraft. She raised her hand and waited for Rowan to acknowledge her. "I know witchcraft is really old," she said. "But did witches back then really do things the way people do them today? Did they worship a goddess and all of that?"

"You've just asked the million-dollar question," Rowan said. "This is the thing that many, many people get hung up on—what exactly is witchcraft, and where did it come from? That's a long story, but I'll try to give you the short version. Many people will try to tell you that the witchcraft practiced today has been handed down from generation to generation, and that the rituals and chants and invocations we use today are ancient secrets practiced by our ancestors."

"You mean they aren't?" Cooper said.

Rowan shrugged. "Who's to say?" she answered. "Probably some of them have some basis in ancient rituals. But the truth is that what we call witchcraft today is a mixture of all kinds of things. Some of it comes from ancient fertility rites. Some of it is based on old myths and legends. And some of it we've just made up in the last fifty years."

"Doesn't that mean that witchcraft isn't real?" said the old woman seated in one of the armchairs. "I mean, if it's all made up, what holds it together?"

"Witchcraft is a religion," Rowan said. "But it isn't a religion centered around one particular book, like the Torah or the Koran, or around one particular figure, like Jesus or the Buddha. That's what confuses a lot of people. Witchcraft is a pagan religion, meaning that it doesn't focus on only one god or goddess. It's a religion based on rituals and festivals practiced by people who lived in close communion with nature. People bring to it the various rituals and beliefs of their respective cultures. Unlike Christianity and Judaism, which have established sets of rules and basic beliefs, witchcraft has very few set beliefs. Different witches practice it differently. Some do magic. Others don't. Some worship particular gods and goddesses. Others don't worship any at all."

"Then what holds it together?" asked Annie.

"A basic belief that everything in the world is connected somehow to everything else, and that becoming more attuned to these connections, and to the cycles of nature, can bring great changes to your life," Rowan answered. "I know that sounds like a non-answer, but it's true. Witches believe that, because everything is connected, what we do with our lives creates changes all around us. We believe that by becoming more aware of the natural processes of life and nature we can learn to work with those processes to effect change. We might use magic to make these changes. We might use chanting and singing and drumming. We might use meditation. But whatever we do, what we're trying to accomplish is the same—we're trying to make positive changes in our lives and in the world we live in."

"That makes witchcraft sound really boring," Sasha said. "What about all the robes and candles and incense and all of that? Where's the fun stuff?"

"You can't just look at the trappings and costumes of ritual," Rowan said. "Those things are fun, but the real power of witchcraft is the changes that take place when you dedicate yourself to understanding the rhythms and cycles of nature—and to exploring your connections with the world and how those things can have an effect on your own life and on the lives of others."

"I still like the robes and the incense," Sasha whispered to Kate. "This other stuff sounds too eggheady for me."

Kate was thinking about everything that Rowan had said. It was all complicated.

"How do you know if you're doing it right?" she asked, speaking her thoughts out loud.

"Another good question," said Rowan. "Again, that's going to be different for different people. And it's going to take time for you to know when something is working and when it's not. But basically you know you're doing it right if it's making your life better. If you're a happier person because of your involvement in witchcraft, and if you're living a more well-rounded and full life, then you're doing it right."

"Or if you land a great boyfriend," Sasha said to Kate, giggling.

"I don't think that's exactly what she meant," Kate responded. But she had to admit that having Scott as her boyfriend _did_ make her feel better about herself. So maybe that was part of it after all.

Rowan continued, "I know you all have a lot of questions," she said. "What witchcraft is and isn't can't be explained all at once, and it will become more clear to you the more you study and learn. I've copied some reading materials for all of you which will explain a little bit more about the evolution of modern witchcraft. You can take these home and read them during the week. But for the rest of tonight I want to break into smaller groups for discussion. I'll lead one of the groups. Other members of the Coven of the Green Wood will lead groups as well. You can ask them about their own experiences in the Craft, and that might give you a better idea of what this is al about. So let's form four groups of three or so people. Try to get into groups with folks you don't know. That way you'll get to know more people."

People stood up and began to form little groups. Annie and Cooper moved away from Kate and found others to stick with. Kate looked around. Almost everyone else had already matched up with a group. She noticed that the older woman was still alone, so she walked over to her and introduced herself.

"I'm Lea," the woman said. "It's nice to meet you."

"Why don't we form a group around the chair here?" said a voice behind Kate.

She turned and saw Tyler standing there, looking at her.

"I'm your leader tonight," he explained when Kate looked puzzled. "I may be young, but I've been raised in the Craft all my life. Rowan is my mother."

 _That explains why he was at the ritual_ , Kate thought. But who was the girl he had left with? She still didn't have an answer to that question. Not that it was any of her concern.

"Mind if I join you?" Sasha asked. "All the other groups are full."

"Not at all," Tyler said. "Let's sit down."

They all sat around Lea's chair and started talking. Tyler explained to them that his mother had been a member of the Coven of the Green Wood since before he was born. He had been brought up participating in rituals, and had joined the coven himself when he was thirteen.

"Did you ever think about becoming something else?" Kate asked.

Tyler nodded. "I learned about a lot of different religions when I was growing up," he said. "I went to Jewish synagogues and Muslim mosques. I went to Baptist churches and Catholic churches and Quaker meetings. My sister and I learned Buddhist meditation and different things like that. But I always came back to witchcraft. It just feels right for me."

"You have a sister," Sasha asked.

"Yes," said Tyler. "She's over there with one of the other groups."

Kate looked in the direction Tyler was nodding. When she saw that his sister was the girl from the ritual, something inside her breathed a sigh of relief. _She wasn't a girlfriend after all. Why am I even thinking about that?_ Kate thought, scolding herself. She ran her finger absentmindedly over the ring that Scott had given her. When she looked up, she saw that Tyler had turned his tawny eyes in her direction. She looked away, pretending to scratch her nose.

They talked for a long time about Tyler's experiences as a witch. Lea was very interested in knowing how he felt about being part of such a misunderstood religion. Sasha asked some questions about magic. But Kate kept quiet. She didn't really know what to ask. Plus, she was afraid that if she said anything Tyler would look at her again, and she didn't know if she could take it.

When Rowan announced that time was up, the groups broke up and people went to pick up the handouts that were sitting on the table at the front of the room. Kate was standing with Sasha, waiting for her turn, when Tyler walked up to them.

"Kate," he said. "You're awfully quiet. I was wondering if you had any questions of your own. Maybe you'd like to get together during the week to talk more about things. Or maybe I could call you."

Kate looked at him. She wasn't sure, but she thought he was asking her out. For a moment she felt the peculiar tickling sensation in her stomach that she'd had the first time Scott had asked her out. But then she came to her senses.

"I don't know," she said. "I'm going to be really busy this week.

Tyler nodded. "That's okay," he said. "We can talk next week."

"I have some questions," Sasha said suddenly. "Maybe you and I could get together. I'm not too busy this week."

Kate looked at Sasha in surprise. She was clearly trying to get Tyler to ask her out. But he deflected her. "Maybe we should save all the questions for class," he said. "I'll see you guys next week."

After he left, Sasha turned to Kate. "I can't believe he just asked you out," she said. "And I can't believe you said no."

"But I have a boyfriend," Kate said. "And so do you. What about Jack?"

"Who?" Sasha said absentmindedly as she stared at Tyler's retreating back. "Oh, Jack. You're right. But I wasn't really asking Tyler out. I was just trying to help him save face after you rejected him."

"Thanks, I guess," said Kate.

"No problem," Sasha replied. "But I still can't believe you said no. You've got all the luck—two gorgeous guys who have it bad for you. The least you could do is share one with the rest of us."


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER 6**

On Wednesday, Kate arrived at Annie's house earlier than she'd expected to. Coach Saliers had been in one of her rare good moods and had only made them do light drills and play a short scrimmage before sending them to the showers. Kate had declined an offer from Jessica and Tara to go watch a video afterward, telling them that she had some homework to do. But the truth was that she wanted to talk to Annie in private.

She rang the bell and waited for someone to answer, hoping that Annie would be home alone. But when the door opened and she saw Sasha's face peering out, she was shocked.

"Hey," Sasha said. "Come on in."

Kate entered the house and followed Sasha into the kitchen, where Annie was just taking something out of the oven. Annie was always trying out new recipes, mixing ingredients together as easily as she combined chemicals in lab experiments. As usual, the room was filled with smells that made Kate's mouth water.

"Hi," Annie said. "You're just in time. Sasha and I made peanut butter cookies."

"They're my favorite," Sasha explained. "I showed Annie how to make the little crosshatch design on the top with a fork. Want one?"

"No, thanks," Kate answered, putting her backpack down. "I'm not hungry." She really would have liked to have some cookies, but she was annoyed that Sasha was there. She needed to talk to Annie alone, and now she wouldn't get to. Besides, since when had Annie gotten to be so friendly with the new girl? After-school-get-togethers had always been reserved for Cooper, Annie, and Kate. Now Sasha was acting as if she'd always been part of the group, and even though she liked Sasha, that bothered Kate a little.

"Sasha and I were talking about last night's class," Annie said. "I thought it was really interesting."

"Yeah," said Sasha, taking a still-warm cookie and popping it in her mouth. "We're going to do the dedication ritual. Are you?"

Kate didn't know what to say. She honestly hadn't thought about it much at all. But apparently Sasha and Annie had, and they'd been talking about it.

"I think Cooper wants to do it, too," Annie said.

"She does," Sasha said. "I talked to her about it in school today."

"I didn't see you in class today," Kate said. "I thought you might be sick or something."

"I just missed the morning classes," Sasha explained. "I had to do some stuff with my mom. But Coop and I have math together seventh period. That's when I saw her."

 _Coop?_ thought Kate. Nobody called Cooper "Coop."

"I haven't really decided if I'm doing it or not," Kate said. "The ritual, I mean. It sounds like a big step."

"Come on," Sasha urged. "We're all doing it. You can't be the only one left out. Besides, then maybe you can spend more time with Mr. Golden Eyes."

"Who?" Annie asked, sliding cookies off a cookie sheet and onto the counter.

"You know," Sasha said. "That guy who has the hots for Kate. I told you about him."

Annie nodded. Kate felt anger rise up inside her. "I really don't like people talking about me when I'm not around," she said, more harshly than she'd intended.

Sasha raised her hands. "Sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to tell tales out of school. I thought it was just between friends."

"That's okay," Kate said, feeling bad for blowing up. "I didn't mean to snap at you. I just had a long day. Maybe I do need one of those cookies after all."

Sasha pushed a plate of cookies toward her, and Kate took one. After finishing it off, she felt a little better. After finishing three, she felt great. She sat down at the table across from Sasha.

"Maybe it's just the cookies talking, but I think I _will_ do the dedication ritual," she said. "It might be fun." Some of her uneasy feelings had died away, and she was feeling more comfortable. Maybe the ritual really would be fun. Besides, if her friends were all doing it, she didn't want to feel left out.

"That's the spirit," Sasha said. "The the whole gang will be officially witchy. Everyone at school will be in awe of our powers."

"I didn't say anything about telling people at school," Kate said.

"Right," said Annie. "We had enough trouble when one little spell went wrong. No one even knew we were responsible, but they blamed us anyway. If they actually knew we were involved in Wicca, they'd just assume everything was our fault."

"You guys worry too much," Sasha said. "Back in LA, no one cared if you were a witch or not. I had lots of witch friends in school. We called ourselves the Coven of Angels. You know, because Los Angeles is the City of Angels."

"I don't think something like that would go over very well in Beecher Falls," Annie said seriously.

"I know it wouldn't," Kate added. "Besides, no one in my family knows, and I'd like to keep it that way."

"It's your call," Sasha said. "I just think it would be cool to be able to walk around school with everyone knowing that we're witches."

They sat at the table talking until the last sheet of cookies was cooling on the counter. Then Sasha asked if she could see Annie's bedroom.

They went up the narrow staircase that led to Annie's attic bedroom. When Sasha saw it, she gave a long whistle.

"This place is cool," she said. "You have the whole thing to yourself?"

Annie nodded. "All mine."

Sasha walked around the room picking things up and looking at them. She ran her hands over the quilt on Annie's bed and stood looking out the big windows that offered a view of the treetops and, far beyond them, the ocean. Then she put her arms out and spun around a few times in the center of the room.

"I can't wait to do rituals in here," she said. "Imagine, your very own secret space. I'd give anything for a room like this."

She stopped twirling and went over to one of Annie's bookshelves. Looking at the books, she picked one out and held it up.

"Is this the spell book that started it all?"

"That's the one," Kate said. "The good old 'Come to Me Love Spell.'"

Sasha flipped through the pages, looking for the spell. When she found it, she read for a few minutes, then laughed. "This sounds like a bunch of bad poetry," she said. "It really worked?"

Annie and Kate both nodded. "Kate had every guy in school after her for a while," Annie said.

"I didn't even know what I was doing," said Kate. "I just thought it might be fun."

"But look at you now," Sasha replied. "You must have done something right."

"I don't think Scott's going out with me has anything to do with the spell," Kate said. "I think it just got him interested."

"But don't tell Cooper that," Annie said, teasing her friend. "She still says Scott has to be the most willing subject of a spell ever."

A buzzing sound from downstairs interrupted their conversation. Sasha jumped up. "That must be the timer," she said. "I left it on so we'd know how long the cookies had been cooling. I'll go turn it off."

"That's okay," Annie said, getting up. "I'll go. You stay and talk to Kate."

Annie left, and Sasha threw herself onto the bed, stretching out. "I'm so glad I met you guys," she said. "I really miss my friends back home, but you make it a lot easier."

Kate wasn't sure what to say. Was she glad that Sasha had come into their lives? She wasn't sure. She liked her, but there were times when the other girl got on her nerves a little. But was it because she was annoying, or just because she was different? Kate couldn't tell yet.

"Hey, what time is it?" Sasha asked suddenly.

Kate looked at her watch. "Almost five-thirty," she said.

"I've got to go," Sasha said, sitting up. "I told the woman at the shelter that I'd be there by six."

"Shelter?" Kate asked, confused.

"Yeah," Sasha answered. "I do this volunteer thing. You know the Summer House?"

Kate nodded. The Summer House was a home for runaways, many of whom came to Beecher Falls on their way to Seattle. Kate's mother sometimes donated food from her catering business to them.

"I go there sometimes," Sasha explained, picking up her backpack. "I volunteered at a shelter in LA, and I really liked it, so when I came here they hooked me up with the Summer House. But the lady running it hates it when we're late, so I have to scoot."

Sasha ran out of the bedroom and took the stairs two at a time. She said good-bye to Annie and headed for the front door. Kate heard it slam shut before she herself had even made it to the kitchen.

"She was sure in a hurry," Annie said. "I was just bringing up more cookies.'

Kate explained where Sasha was going. "I just can't quite figure her out," she said when she had finished the story.

"What do you mean?" asked Annie.

"Well, she's just kind of weird," Kate said.

"A lot of people think _we're_ weird," Annie reminded her. "And as I recall, you thought Cooper and I were really weird before you met us.'

"You two _are_ weird," Kate said. "I'm the only normal one in this crowd."

"What brought you over here, anyway?" Annie asked. "I thought you'd be out with the Graces or something." "The Graces" is what Annie had taken to calling Sherrie, Jessica, and Tara, after the three Graces of Greek mythology. Given the girls' interest in being beautiful and popular, it was an appropriate title, and it had quickly become Annie and Cooper's shorthand for them.

"I wanted to talk to you," Kate said. "But not in front of Sasha."

"Sounds serious," said Annie. "Do I need to be sitting down?"

Kate rolled her eyes. "No. It's just boy problems. Not even boy problems, really. Just something I don't know what to think about."

"Did something happen with Scott?" Annie queried.

Kate shook her head. "No. He's fine. Great. It's this other guy."

"The one Sasha was telling me about?" Annie asked.

"That's the one," Kate said. "The boy with the golden eyes, as I keep referring to him in my head. Tyler."

"What about him?" asked Annie.

"That's just it," said Kate. "I don't know. He asked me out, sort of, and I said no. And I really meant it. But then I find myself thinking about him a lot."

"Thinking in an I-wish-he'd-kiss-me kind of way?" Annie asked. "Or just an I-think-he's-sort-of-cute kind of way?"

Kate rested her chin in her hands. "I thought it was the second kind," she said. "But when he asked me out, a little tiny part of me almost said yes before the bigger part stopped me." She took a cookie from the plate and bit into it. "What does it mean?" she asked.

"Don't look at me," Annie said. "No one has ever asked me out."

"Come on," Kate wailed. "You're the brain around here. You must have _some_ rational way of figuring this out."

Annie thought for a moment. "Maybe there is a scientific way to approach this," she said. "Let's make lists."

"Lists?" said Kate. "What kind of lists?"

"Pros and cons," said Annie. "For Scott and Tyler."

She went into another room and returned with a pad and pen. She wrote Scott's name at the top and Tyler's name halfway down the page. Then she drew a line down the center and wrote "pros" on one side and "cons" on the other.

"Now, start thinking," she said to Kate. "What are the pros of being with Scott?"

"He's cute," Kate said instantly, and Annie wrote it down under Scott's name.

"What else?" she asked.

"He treats me really well," Kate said, thinking. "He has a car. He looks great in a football uniform."

"I think that's covered under cute," Annie said.

Kate thought of a few more things. Then Annie told her to think of the cons of dating him.

"He's probably leaving at the end of the summer," Kate said. "That's all I can think of."

"I wish Cooper were here," Annie said. "She'd come up with a laundry list. But let's move on to Tyler. Pros."

"His eyes," Kate said instantly, then paused.

"He's Wiccan," Annie suggested.

"I guess that's a plus," Kate said. "Put it down."

She thought of a few more things to write down about Tyler, and then the moved on to the cons.

"He's not Scott," she said immediately.

"That doesn't count," Annie said. "It's like a double negative or something. Think of something else."

Kate thought, and added a few things to Tyler's con list. When she was done, Annie showed her the lists.

"Seems to me that all Tyler has over Scott is that he'll be here come September and he has great eyes," Annie said. "Is that enough?"

Kate shook her head. "No," she said. "It isn't. So why do I keep thinking about him?"

"I can't help you there," Annie said. "But science doesn't lie. Statistically speaking, Scott is ahead by about fifty points."

"You're right," Kate said. "I have a great boyfriend."

"You don't sound entirely convinced," Annie said. "Do you want me to go over the lists again?"

Kate shook her head. "I think I'm just scared," she said.

"Of Scott's leaving?" Annie asked.

"More of Scott's changing, I guess," Kate answered. "He's going to be in college and living somewhere new. He's going to be doing all kinds of exciting things. What if he decides he wants something else—or someone else?"

"Now I get it," Annie said. "You're afraid he won't be satisfied with a girlfriend back home who's still in high school when he's going to parties with college girls who would love to go out with the hot new football player."

"That makes me feel so much better," Kate said. "Thank you for putting my deepest fears into words."

"Sorry," said Annie. "But look at it this way. You were afraid he would never go out with you in the first place, and you were wrong about that. Clearly the boy sees something in you that he likes. Why should that change?"

"Maybe it won't," Kate admitted. "Maybe I'm just being ridiculous. I guess maybe I saw Tyler as a fall-back plan in case things with Scott didn't work out. But you're right. I shouldn't worry about it. And who knows—maybe he won't leave after all." She glanced at the clock. "I'd better get going too. It's almost time for dinner."

"Aunt Sarah and Meg should be home from the library soon too," Annie said. "Meg will probably have fifteen new books she'll want to read to me. I'd better get all of these dishes washed up."

"Thanks for listening to me be stupid," Kate said.

"Any time," Annie replied. "Now, go call that boyfriend of yours. He might think you've run off with someone else if you don't talk to him every hour or so."


	7. Chapter 7

**CHAPTER 7**

The wind coming off the ocean made Kate shiver, and she pulled the ends of her sweatshirt's sleeves over her hands. Sitting on the rock, watching the waves roll in, she thought about the night where she, Cooper, and Annie had done their ritual in the little cove. It had been the ritual that ended the confusion caused by her spells. They had each given up something to the ritual fire that night, and Kate could still see the smoke rising up toward the full moon.

There was no full moon tonight. The weather had turned stormy on Thursday, and it was still gray and windy on Friday evening. Kate had been surprised when Scott suggested that they go to the beach. She thought he would want to see a movie or maybe go out with some of the other football players and their girlfriends. But there they were, sitting side by side on a huge boulder that stretched out into the ocean and was reached by climbing up a series of smaller, steplike rocks. It was Kate's favorite spot on the beach. Sitting up there made her feel like she was stranded on a deserted island. But she wasn't alone. Scott was with her. It was just the two of them and miles of ocean and sky. She reached for his hand, and relaxed as his fingers closed around hers.

Ever since her conversation with Annie, Kate had been happier with Scott than ever. Sasha had been right—she was lucky. Scott was a great guy. And she'd decided that she wasn't going to worry about the future until it happened. She had no way of knowing what might happen a week, a month, or a year from now. All she could do was enjoy the time she and Scott still had. The future would take care of itself.

"It's so beautiful out here," she said, leaning her head against Scott.

Scott didn't say anything in response. When Kate looked at him, he was staring out into the distance.

"Are you okay?" she asked. He'd been quiet ever since he'd picked her up.

"Yeah," he said. "Just thinking about stuff.'

"That's never a good sign," Kate teased, but Scott didn't laugh.

"Kate, I've made a decision," he said.

Kate looked at the waves. Something in Scott's voice made her nervous. "About what?" she asked, afraid that she already knew the answer.

"About school," he said. "I've decided to go to New York."

Kate felt her hands grow damp, and she hoped Scott wouldn't notice. She waited a minute, composing herself. Trying to sound as normal as possible, she said, "It's a good school."

Scott nodded. "I know," he said. "It has a great program, and the coach has taken the team to the championship three years in a row. I really think it's where I need to be."

Kate knew that Scott was right. All along she'd suspect that he would pick New York. But until he'd said it, she hadn't realized how much she wanted it to not be New York. Now that the choice was made, she wanted to try to be as grown up about it as she could be.

"There are always holidays," she said, hoping her voice sounded enthusiastic. "Besides, I've always wanted to go to a Broadway show. Now I'll have two reasons to fly out there."

Scott let go of her hand and put both his hands in his pockets. "I knew you'd understand," he said.

Kate put her arm around him. "And we still have the whole summer," she said. "We'll just have to make enough memories to last you until the first break."

Scott looked at her and gave a weak smile. "That's another thing," he said. "I don't think there will be a first break."

"What do you mean?" Kate asked, confused. "Do you have to play right through Christmas?"

Scott sighed. "Man, this is harder than I thought it would be," he said.

"What is?" Kate asked. "I already said it was okay."

"That's just it," Scott said. "It's not okay." He ran his hands through his hair.

"I just don't think this can go anywhere," he said. "You can't come to New York, and I don't think seeing each other only on holidays is enough."

"I knew it," Kate said to herself, forgetting that she was talking out loud. "I knew this would happen. I knew it was too good to be true."

Ever since she, Cooper, and Annie had done the final ritual, she'd been waiting for things with Scott to fall apart. She wanted to believe that his liking her had nothing to do with the magic. But another part of her had been waiting for the spell to wear off. Now, apparently, it had. She figured it was her punishment for playing around with something she had no business fooling with.

"What do you want me to say?" Scott asked. "I'm sorry."

"Me too," said Kate, rubbing her hands together as a chill crept over her. She felt the ring Scott had given her on her finger and took it off.

"Take this back," she said. "I don't want it."

"Keep it," Scott said. "I want you to have it."

"But I don't want it," Kate said, suddenly angry. "I don't want anything that reminds me of you."

She threw the ring at Scott as hard as she could. It hit him in the chest and bounced off. There was a soft click as it struck the rock, and then the ring sailed off into the air. It hung there for a second and then dropped without a sound into the ocean below.

Tears filled Kate's eyes as she stood up and ran down the rock steps to the beach. Scott got up and ran after her, but she didn't stop. Her feet slipped in the sand as she ran toward the wooden stairs that led up to the parking area.

"Kate!" Scott called after her, but the wind drowned out the sound from his voice, and the sobs that came from her throat surrounded her like storm clouds.

She reached the steps and ran p them as quickly as she could. When she reached the parking lot she kept running past Scott's car and toward the bus stop. Luckily, there was a bus pulling in as she ran up. It stopped and opened its doors, and Kate ran on, barely able to find her bus pass in he coat pocket.

She stumbled to a seat and fell into it, burying her face in her hands. She didn't care who was around her or who saw her crying. She'd never felt so miserable in her entire life. As the bus pulled away from the stop, she caught a glimpse of Scott running beside it, trying to flag it down. For a moment she was afraid that the driver might stop, but he didn't, and she got away safely.

She didn't want to go home. She knew her mother would want to know why she was upset, and she didn't think she could pull herself together in time to fool her. She couldn't go to Sherrie's or Jessica's or Tara's. They were the last people she wanted to discuss her romantic woes with. As it was, Sherrie would most likely know within the hour anyway. She probably had hidden cameras on the beach.

Kate found herself getting off at the stop near Annie's house. Lately it seemed she was always going to Annie with her problems. But she felt safe in Annie's house. Annie's aunt made Kate feel like part of the family, but she never asked embarrassing questions or pried into the girls' lives. Kate just hoped that Sasha wasn't there. But recently she had spent every afternoon volunteering at the Summer House, so probably she wouldn't have time.

Kate was relieved when Annie opened the door. She took one look at Kate and pulled her inside.

"You look awful," she said. "What happened? Shouldn't you be with Scott?"

Kate started crying all over again, unable to tell Annie what was wrong. She just stood there, tears running down her face, until Annie put her arms around her and hugged her. That made her cry even more, but she felt better anyway.

"I think we . . . broke . . . up . . .," Kate said haltingly as she sobbed in between words.

"Broke up?" Annie said. "Why?"

Kate sniffled, composing herself. "I don't know," she said. "I mean, not really. He's going to school in New York."

Annie handed her a tissue to wipe her eyes with. Then she led Kate into the living room, where Meg was sitting on the couch, reading.

"Are you okay?" Meg asked Kate. "You look tired."

"I am," Kate said, trying to smile at the worried little girl.

Annie's aunt walked in a moment later. "I thought I heard you, Kate," she said. "Is everything all right?"

"Boy trouble," Annie explained, and her aunt nodded.

"I'll leave you two alone, then," she said. "If anyone wants me, I'll be in my study doing . . . something."

Kate laughed despite how she felt. Annie's aunt always knew when to disappear gracefully.

"You don't have to go," she said. "I'm okay."

"I'll go anyway," Sarah said. "If I stay too long I'll start crying too, and no one needs that."

She left the girls alone with Meg, who went back to her book, occasionally casting glances at Kate and frowning.

"I can't believe you guys broke up," Annie said. "Everything seemed to be going so well."

"That's the thing," Kate said. "Just last night we were making plans for the weekend. I had no clue this was coming. It's like he just froze me out while we were sitting there."

"Maybe he's just freaked out about the whole school thing," Annie said.

"But I told him I didn't mind waiting," Kate said. "And he said he didn't mind, either. At least that's what he said last week."

"There's got to be some other reason for it," Annie said. "I know boys are flaky, but they don't usually just drop girls they've recently given rings to for no reason, do they?"

"I didn't think so," said Kate. "But something's gotten into him."

"Maybe a bad witch cast a spell on him," said Meg.

Kate looked over at the little girl. "What?" she asked.

"A bad witch," Meg repeated. "Like in the fairy stories. See?"

She held up the book she was reading. It was a collection of fairy tales. Meg was looking at a picture of a prince. He was in a castle dungeon, and an old, ugly hag was pointing a finger at him.

"The witch made the prince think she was a beautiful princess," Meg explained. "She made him fall in love with her. But then he woke up and saw that she was just a bad witch."

Kate looked at Annie. All along she'd been afraid that it was her spell that was keeping Scott around. Was this another sign that she'd been right?

"Upstairs," Annie said quickly. "Meg, Kate and I need to do something in my room. You stay here, okay?"

Meg sighed. "Okay," she said. "But remember what I said about the bad witch."

The two girls ran up the stairs to Annie's room, shutting the door behind them.

"Do you think Meg is right?" Kate asked. "I mean, I was thinking the same thing on the bus. Maybe Scott really is just waking up from the spell I put on him. Maybe he never liked me at all."

"I guess it's possible," Annie said. "Weirder things have happened. But it seems strange that it took this long to come to an end."

"It's true," Kate said dejectedly. "I _am_ a bad witch. I'm just like one of those witches in the fairy tales. I enchanted Scott and got him for a while, but now the spell is over and he sees me the way I really am—old and ugly." She started to cry again.

"Well, that's a little dramatic," Annie said. "You're hardly old. Or ugly. But the basic principle might still apply."

"Thanks a lot," Kate said. "You're supposed to be making me feel better, not worse."

"Sorry," said Annie. "I'm trying. "I'm not good at this, you know."

"Where's the spell book?" Kate asked. "The one I used in the first place. I want to read that spell again. Maybe it will give me a clue to what happened."

Annie walked to her bookshelf and started looking for the book. She ran her finger down the spines, stopping where the book was kept. When she turned around, she had a puzzled look on her face.

"That's weird," she said. "It's gone."


	8. Chapter 8

**CHAPTER 8**

The weekend was terrible. Kate and Annie had been unable to find the spell book anywhere. On Saturday, Kate had tried to avoid leaving the house as much as possible, but in the afternoon she had made the mistake of answering the phone, thinking it might be Scott calling to talk things over. But it had been Sherrie. Somehow she'd found out about the breakup.

"Of course, I wanted to hear it directly from you," she said. "You know how these stories can get totally twisted around."

 _Especially when you tell them,_ Kate thought. But she knew that it was better for Sherrie to have the real story. If she didn't, she'd just make up something that was a lot worse than the truth. So she told her friend what had happened.

"I told you not to trust a senior boy," Sherrie said, and Kate could just imagine her sitting in her room as she said it, shaking her head sadly. "But don't worry—we'll find you a new one in no time. I know at least a dozen boys who would be happy to go out with you. Scott will be so jealous he'll beg you to come back."

"I don't want him to beg me to come back," Kate said.

But when she hung up, she wondered if maybe she did want Scott to want her back. Maybe she did want him to tell her that they'd made a terrible mistake and that he couldn't imagine living without her. Would that make her feel better about everything? She wasn't sure, but something about the idea appealed to her.

Something else still bothered her about the breakup. She was trying hard to convince herself that it was Scott who was making the mistake. But maybe it wasn't Scott. Maybe she had made a mistake in the first place by using magic to get him to notice her. Maybe the breakup just meant the magic had finally run out. It was possible that Scott had never really been interested in her in the first place. She'd been letting herself believe that the spell was over and that Scott as with her because he wanted to be. But now she thought she might have been wrong all along, and that the breakup was what she deserved. That was even harder to take than the idea that they'd split up because he was going off to college.

She was able to distract herself on Sunday by helping her father at his sporting goods store after church. Putting price tags on cans of tennis balls normally bored her out of her mind, but on that particular day the repetition of picking up a can, running the pricing gun over it, and putting the can on the shelf lulled her into a state of half consciousness in which she was able to not think about anything at all.

But then Monday had come. Just as she'd feared, the news about her breakup with Scott was already all over school. When she walked to her locker, she found Tara, Jessica, and Sherrie waiting for her with mournful expressions on their faces.

"I am _so_ sorry," Jessica said, putting her arm around Kate.

"Sherrie told us what happened," Tara added. "And if you ask me, Scott's a big loser."

"I've already made up a list of potential new boyfriends," Sherrie said. "Do you want to go over them?"

"Later," Kate said. "But thanks for the thought."

The rest of the day was a blur, mainly because Kate spent every moment trying not to run into Scott. Besides, she got tired of everyone acting as if someone had died. Cooper was the only person who didn't offer her condolences. "Good riddance," was her succinct appraisal of the situation, and for once Kate appreciated her friend's cynicism.

The only other person who didn't seem upset for Kate was Sasha. "It's sad and all," she said at lunch. "But he's just a guy, right?"

Kate wished she could be as independent as Sasha seemed to be. When she liked a guy, she wasn't afraid to say so. But she didn't seem to need them around her, like Sherrie did, or to hide her interest in them, the way Cooper did. She just took them as a matter of fact.

As for Scott, he'd kept a low profile all day. Kate had only seen him once, as she was walking to history after lunch, and he had turned and gone the other way when he noticed her coming.

"Running away with his tail between his legs," Sasha said, then made sounds like a dog scurrying off in fear, making Kate smile in spite of her unhappiness.

By Tuesday night, Kate was feeling better. If Scott wanted this breakup, that was fine with her. It didn't matter if the reason had been the spell's wearing off or something else. The fact was, she didn't need him around to be happy. For once she was going to take a lesson from her friends. If Sasha could be independent, then so could she. As she walked into Crones' Circle for the second witchcraft class, she was determined to have a good time.

There were fewer people in the second class. Kate noticed, as she and her friends took their seats, that some faces were missing. She quickly made note that Tyler was there again before looking away unconcerned. She was glad to see Lea was still there, though. Something about the way the older woman carried herself appealed to Kate. _I bet she's never waited around for any man,_ Kate thought, giving Lea a smile.

The second class was led by Anya, another member of the Coven of the Green Wood. Anya was a thin, almost bony woman with brown hair that she wore in two long braids. She moved her tiny hands like bird wings when she talked, and watching her made Kate think of a sparrow hopping from tree to tree.

"Our topic tonight is magic," Anya said. "Lat week we talked a little bit about what witchcraft is. When most people think of witchcraft, they think of magic. So we thought we'd spend a little time talking about what magic is, what it does, and what is should and should not be used for."

Anya picked up a pot that had a small plant growing in it. "This is a lavender plant," she said. "I grew it from seeds that I started indoors about a month ago. When it's warm enough, I'm going to plant it in my garden."

Kate didn't understand what Anya was getting at. Sure, a lavender plant could be pretty, but it was hardly magic.

"It took a lot for that little seed to become this plant," Anya continued. "The seed contained everything it needed to make the plant, but without the help of the water and the light, it would have stayed dormant. And without more if it, the plant wouldn't bloom and ill my garden with its fragrance. In a way, magic is like the water and the light. We have the potential to make all kinds of things happen. But if we don't find ways to use that potential—to nourish it—then nothing happens."

"You mean the magic is already in us?" asked a woman in the back

"That's right," Anya said. "Many people mistakenly think of magic as something mysterious or supernatural. It is, in a way, because it's something extraordinary. But true magic is simply finding ways to make the things happen that we already have the ability to make happen."

"Can you give us a concrete example?" asked Lea.

Anya thought for a moment. "Suppose I need money," she said. "Maybe I need six hundred dollars to pay for repairs on my car. I might do a spell in which I ask for money to come my way. A few days later I might get a raise at work, or someone who owes me money might pay me back. I might even get a tax refund I didn't know was coming."

"But that's not magic," the first woman said. "That's just luck."

"Is it?" asked Anya. "What is magic? It's removing the obstacles that are preventing you from getting what you want or need. When I do a ritual or cast a spell, I'm really asking for help in finding ways around the obstacles that are in my way. If I need money, I look for ways that I can get that money. I don't expect it to just fall out of the sky."

"But what if you just want something?" Sasha asked. "I mean, like what if you see a really great leather jacket, but you can't afford it. Shouldn't you be able to do magic and just get it?"

"That's a good question," Anya said. "Do you think you should?"

"Sure," said Sasha. "If I can do magic, I should be able to get what I want out of it."

"What do the rest of you think?" Anya asked.

Kate thought about the question. She certainly had experience getting something she wanted with magic. And she could definitely confirm that sometimes what you ended up with wasn't at all what you thought it was going to be. But she didn't really want to tell the whole class her story, so she kept quiet. She looked at Annie and Cooper, and she knew they were thinking the same thing. After all, they'd all been through the experience with the mixed-up spells together, and they'd all done magic that had backfired in one way or another.

"I don't think you should treat magic like a credit card," Annie said carefully, breaking the silence. "If all you do is take, take, take, then what's the point?"

"The point is that you have what you want!" Sasha said. "Why should you have to work so hard for everything when there's magic?"

"These are all good arguments," said Anya. "And they all bear discussion. What we're going to do tonight is break into groups again for a special exercise. If you can, stay with the group you were in last time. If someone from your group is gone, then just go with another group."

Kate tensed. She'd been dreading seeing Tyler again, and now she was going to have to be in a group with him. So far she'd managed to avoid talking to him since coming into the class. But now she found herself seated in a group with him. He was holding an envelope in his hands.

"This is our assignment," he explained, waving the envelope at the others. "In here is a piece of paper with a problem on it. We have to come up with a magical way of solving the problem."

"Great, a magical SAT test," Kate griped.

"Kate, why don't you open the envelope and see what our problem is?" Tyler suggested.

 _I already know what my problem is,_ Kate thought. _Guys._ She took the envelope from Tyler and opened it.

"'You're having problems with someone at work or school,'" she read. "'For some reason, the person seems to have it in for you and is making your life miserable. What kind of magical work can you do to make things better?'"

"I know what I'd do," Sasha said instantly. "I'd come up with something to make the person really sorry for being mean to me. Maybe a spell to make her unpopular."

"That might not be the best way to go," Lea suggested. "Remember, witches believe that whatever kind of energy you send out comes back to _you_ three times as strong. If you send out negative energy, you might find yourself on the receiving end."

"Then what would _you_ do?" Sasha asked. "If the person is determined to get you, I don't see what other choice you have."

"Maybe the other person is unhappy," Lea suggested, "and is just taking out all of that frustration on you."

"Or maybe she's mad that at you because she thinks you did something you didn't really do," suggested Kate, thinking about her own experiences with magic gone astray.

"How would you address those things with magic?" Tyler asked.

Kate thought for a minute. "I might do a ritual where I imagined all of my own anger at the person flowing out of me and being replaced by good thoughts about her," she suggested.

"Or maybe you could work some kind of a spell designed to make her feel better about herself," Lea said. "I've certainly had a lot of trouble in my own life with people who treat others badly because they're unhappy about something."

"That seems like a waste of time," Sasha said. "I like the more direct approach. You see something you want—you get it. You need something fixed—you fix it."

Anya was walking around the room, listening to the different groups talk. She was standing by Kate's group when Sasha spoke.

"Kate and Lea are right," Anya said. "Sometimes the answer to a problem has to be found in an unexpected place. You might think the answer is to somehow stop the person who's giving you a hard time. But it might work better to try to establish a different kind of relationship with her instead. Remember what we talked about—magic should be used for removing obstacles, not for plowing through things like a bulldozer."

"I still think my way is better," Sasha said. "I've done lots of spells, and they've always worked out just fine."

"Really?" said Tyler. "What kind of spells?"

Sasha shrugged her shoulders. "All kinds," she said. "Spells to get money. Spells to get things. Spells to make people stop talking about me. Once I did this spell where I took a picture of a girl who had taken something from me and I set it on fire. The next night, her house burned."

Everyone looked at Sasha in shock.

"Oh, it was okay," Sasha said. "She didn't die or anything. It just burned down her house. But she deserved it, right? I mean, she stole stuff from me."

"I think it's time to hear how the other groups made out," Anya said. "Why don't we all go back to our seats."

The groups broke up, and Anya continued the class. She asked different people how their exercises had gone. Most of the groups had found interesting solutions to their problems. Kate found it intriguing to see how different people approached their challenges. She'd never really thought about all of the different ways that magic could be used. Like Sasha, she had sort of seen magic as a way to make things happen more easily. But looking at it that way had gotten her into a lot of trouble, and she knew that it wasn't the way to do things.

As shocking as Sasha's revelations had been, maybe she did have a point about something. Maybe there were times when it was important to just go for something you wanted. Maybe, instead of waiting around for Scott to ask her out in the first place, she should have just asked _him._ She'd been too afraid to do that. She was afraid he would say no, or that he would laugh at her. She was afraid that people would make fun of her if they found out that she had asked a guy out.

But why shouldn't she ask a guy out? Why should she wait around for him to ask?

She glanced over and noticed Tyler sitting a few people away from her. He was watching Anya intently, nodding as she spoke. Kate looked at his face. He really _was_ cute. And he had asked her out.

She tried to concentrate on what Anya was saying. But her mind kept going back to Tyler. Would it hurt her to go out with him? But she'd just broken up with Scott. It hadn't even been a week! She was supposed to be all brokenhearted. But why? Why should she sit around crying just because a guy was too stupid to know a good thing when he saw it?

Anya was ending the class, but Kate hadn't heard anything she'd said during the past five minutes. As soon as people started getting up, Kate walked over to Tyler, who was helping to put away the folding chairs. Her heart was beating a mile a minute. _So this is what it feels like_ , she thought as she tried to think of what to say. _I wonder if this is how guys feel when they ask us out._

"Hi, Tyler," she said.

He turned and looked at her. Suddenly she felt frozen to the spot. She almost said good night and walked away, but then she thought about getting what she wanted and not being afraid.

"I know I said I was busy last week when you asked if I want to get together," she said, trying to keep her voice steady. "But this week is a lot better. So I was wondering if you still wanted to do that. Get together, I mean."

Tyler smiled. "Sure," he said. "How about Thursday?"

"Thursday?" said Kate, trying to think.

"You know, the night before Friday. I have something on Friday, but Thursday is good for me."

"Thursday is great," Kate said. "How about we meet here at six?"

"Six it is," Tyler responded. "See you then."

Kate turned around and saw Annie, Cooper, and Sasha watching her with big grins on their faces.

"You go, girl!" Sasha whispered.

"I knew you could do better than Dumbo," Cooper added.

"And you did it all without magic," Annie said proudly.

"I did, didn't I?" Kate said, realizing exactly what she'd just done. "I think that calls for a little celebration. Let's go to the ice cream place around the corner. Double scoops on me.


End file.
